Yesterday, Todd bought me an iPhone in exchange for some design work. After a few unsuccessful attempts at updating my blog, I found a Wordpress admin plugin for the iPhone and so far it works great.

We recently found out about a Gap photo contest for kids. By that, I mean that the photos are of kids, not taken by kids. We briefly considered the the fact that our kids are, indeed, the cutest children on the face of the earth, but realized that it may not be fair to the rest of the contestants if we entered. After a brief debate, we read about the prizes which include a trip to San Francisco for a Gap photo shoot and $5000 to spend at Gap. We decided to enter.

I grabbed one of my work cameras (a Canon Mark II) and we scurried the kids out to the lake. I had never shot the Mark, and quickly realized that it was definitely a camera for professionals. I couldn’t find any button or knob that said “auto”. Nonetheless, after some trial and error, I found some settings that worked. Here are some of our favs. (We apologize in advance to anyone who had hopes of winning this contest.)

I’ve never been that savvy with motorized vehicles and have therefore never been a fanatic of motorcycles, 4×4s, rocket ships, and the like. However, I was ecstatic when my wife bought me a stand-up scooter for father’s day last year. It was powered by a 49cc 2-stroke motor, and looked like a fun toy to expand my knowledge into mechanical things, as well as boost my ever-growing level of coolness.

The manufacturer claimed that the scooter would come 99% assembled which was encouraging. However, when I first opened the box, I realized that it was 75% assembled, at best. Still hopeful, I continued with the assembly, expecting this to be the biggest hiccup in my total scooter experience. I was wrong.

The third day I owned the thing, I managed to break the casing on the pull start, rendering it unstartable (if that’s a word). I quickly emailed the company and they sent me a new part. When the new part did (finally) come, installed it and proceeded to break it on the ninth or tenth pull. (Note to those who have never seen me in person: I’m 6′1″, 150 lbs. and I’ve never won any weight-lifting competitions.) I emailed the company again and was shocked to hear their response…they said that the pull starts (among other things) are not covered under warranty, and proceeded to state that the pull starts are “expected to break” after continued use. I was not happy to read this and replied to the customer service rep as tactfully as I could muster. They agreed to send me one more pull start for free, but explained that I would have to start purchasing the parts in the future. The pull starts sell for about $22. I was breaking one every week.I did the math and realized that this thing was going to cost me over $1100 a year just in pull starts to keep my scooter running.

I was able to start the scooter using a power drill, which fixed the aforementioned problem, but more continued to go wrong. Even with the drill, it was difficult to get the thing started. After scouring the owners manual and the entire Internet, I found an inconsistency in the recommended fuel mix ratio. The owners manual stated multiple times that the fuel ratio should be 50:1, and that the warranty would be void if a different mix were ever used. However, on the manufacturer’s tech support page for the XG-499, they suggest mixing the fuel as rich as 25:1 or as lean as 40:1 based on desired performance. In one of my emails to the manufacturer, I asked about this. They simply reiterated what was posted on their website and mentioned nothing about it being incorrect in the owners manual.

Sometime in the midst of everything else, the clutch went out. (The manufacturer did replaced for free). And the last time I rode the scooter, I got about 50 feet from my driveway when the motor unexpectedly died and i slowly coasted to a stop. At that point I walked it back to my house, parked it and never touched it again until I gave it away. All of these problems happened within about 6 weeks.

In conclusion, do not ever waste your money on this brand of scooters. You will probably find more pleasure in flushing $300 down the toilet. (But only flush bills…coins cause septic backup.)